LOCAL Brighton businesses are being urged to ‘fill the void’ left by the loss of funding for the existing YouthLinx program, which ceases in January next year.

The Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations, (DEEWR) provided approximately $81,000 a year to Bridgewater PCYC to provide services for ‘at risk’ youth and their families as well a family liaison role where youth and their families receive support, information, referrals . When this funding ceases next year, it will be difficult for Bridgewater PCYC to offer any meaningful youth programs catering to the most ‘at risk’ in the community.

BRIGHTON Council and Stornoway Maintenance have signed a mutual resourcing agreement which will see sharing of plant, equipment and labour for the delivery of road construction and maintenance works between the two organisations.

Brighton Council and Stornoway Maintenance have formally agreed to share resources to maintain roads across the municipality. From left, Brighton Council’s Danny Cleaver with Council general manager Ron Sanderson, Stornoway’s Bob Brown, Adam Wilson of Brighton Council and Tim Gardner of Stornoway

The program aims to create a single pool of resources to support the Council’s municipal works program, while giving Stornoway an enlarged pool of expertise and equipment to draw from in delivering its own contracts.

IF you visit our primary schools over the next few weeks you will notice some changes. Work has begun on renovation of buildings at East Derwent Primary School and will soon begin at Herdsmans Cove and Gagebrook Primary Schools.

Phil Novak, right, with Andy Bennett at a recent workshop to develop the middle school educational concept brief. Phil went through Gagebrook Primary as a student then Bridgewater High and Claremont College. He has since graduated with two degrees at the University of Tasmania in science and teaching and has been appointed as a teacher at East Derwent primary school.

The work, which is the second stage of our building program after the Bridgewater High School MDT Centre completion, is funded under the Australian Government’s Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan Building the Education Revolution (BER) Primary Schools for the 21st century program.

BRIGHTON Hardware owners Paul Diaz and Leanne Taylor are absolutely over the moon with their recent win in the Telstra Small Business Awards but the say the win is “all down to their wonderful customers”.

Paul and Leanne won the Tasmanian business owner micro-business award after turning around a business to be the success that it is today.

“We couldn’t have done this without our wonderfully loyal customer base and we would really like to thank them for helping us achieve what we have been able to achieve,” Leanne said.

A customer-focused hardware store, Brighton Hardware took out the Telstra businessowner micro-business award turning around what Paul described as a dying business and in its place, maintaining and establishing a loyal group of customers in a very competitive market.